Sound recording process and apparatus



Sept 29, 1931. .A CAWLEY 1,825,441

soUND RECORDING ocnss AND APPARATUS Filed Jan. 8, 1921 ALOYSIUS J. CAWLEY tion picture films, so that Patented' .Sept 29,. 1931 i AUlblirao sTAfra-sf ALoYsIus J. cAwLaY, or rrr'rsroN, .rENNsYLvANrA; AssiGNoa 'ro 'ir/Anto coaronA- rrIoN or AiramcA, or Naw ronx, N. Y., A coisironA'rioN or DELAWARE souNii nconnme rnoc/Ess'- AND APPARATUS Application med January 41921. .Serial lo. 435,984..

The invention relates .generally to the method of producing sound records on mo'- sound and picture v records may be synchronously reproduced,`

although it is not necessarily limited to this field.

More particularly, the invention is concerned with the recording of, sound on a film at a recording speed that is much in excess of the speed of the film. An arrangement is provided whereby a recorder is in contact with a film while moving in the opposite direction thereto. The recording speed is thus speeds of the recorder and film. P

A plurality of recorders are employed. These malte contact alternately with sep,- arate portions of the film. l The recorders areplaced radiallyat fixed intervals an one makes contact given length, while the -lm has passed through but a ractionof this length. The

other recorder is then in a position to make contact with an' equivalentlength juxtaposed thereto, or opposite to, that traversed by the first.

Arrangements are described whereby any desired sound recording speed'may be` obtained without any increase in the speedv of the lin by simply increasing the numberand speed of the-recording units.

l The invention is perfectly adaptable to the standard motion picture fi in as it ex; ists in practice at present, and is' concerned with placing sound records on the margin or margins of. such a film. 'The records are obviously of an intermittent character. This is readily feasible, particularly if mechanical sound grooves are used, as there is room, for a very large number of 'such recordsj records may be placed on such margins. The

or may be distributed As the sound records'are intended to be placedon the margins ofthe film, there is no interference of picture and sound record as would be the case, ifvforinstance, the lat- Y Y ter were placed across the reverseface ofV the film, as in such case, they would be projected upon the picturescreen. i

^` One can readily see equal to the sum of the with a record surfacev of a .e I

the invention reference is to be had to the.

following description and claims taken in l vAll parts move in a uniform manner, and the apparatus asa whole is very simple, It

is to be especially noted that, although therecording speed is rather highfneither the i film carrier nor the recorders moveat this speed, the high vspeed mentioned being due ,to lthe relative motion of recorder' and film.

This means that considerable `wear/is saved in the `apparatus. y j y that by employing a' Asuitable 'number Vof recorders moving at a proper speed, that/photographic soundrecording processesl requiring a speed' of six feet per second maybe utilized so that they may be placed 'on a ilm that is moving at the standard motion picture speed of one foot per second.' 4 f,

For a more complete understanding of connection with the accompanying drawings, in'whichlike characters 'jof reference. denote corresponding parts in all the views,

and in-which, .A

Figure 1 is a plan view of adevice em.

ploying mechanical recording whereby the non-functioning recorder is raised. from the film surface at the' proper time.

Figure 2 is at side view of the mechanical recording arrangement shown in Figure 1. Figure 3 is an elevational view, partly in crosssection, of another embodiment of 'the invention. This consists of two .concentri-v 'cally revolvingsound recorders adapted to coact with circumferential valves.

#Figure 4 is a side elevational viewof the device shown in Figure 3. y 5 Figure 5 is a' plan view of'a motionpictureflm having a pluralityof high speed sound record grooves on its margin.

If it is desiredto record' or reproduce without the use of electricity, recourse may be had to the`device', i-llustrated'in Figures 1 and 2. Here :the film is wound upon the revolving ilmfcarl'iervl.' yThe shaftv Mis made hollow. The recorders'22 connectwith the hollow shaft'by means of the hollow radial members 23, hav-ing the ieirible ele- J this.

ment 24, which may be either a section of rubber tubing or the like; this is designed to permit the recorders 22 to be lifted in turn from the surface of the iilm, by operation of the connections 25 provided with the shoes 26 which coact with the stationary cam 27. The cam is stationary, while the arms revolve. Gear wheel 3 is attached to the shaft 14, which is provided with the passage 34. External connection is made by means of a swivel or other flexible lioint, which permits turning, but is suiiiciently sound tight. The action of` the spring v28 holds the shoes 26 in firm contact with'the cam 27. Wheel 13a moves the film and toothed gear wheel 3,r

while 4 and 5 move the radial members in the opposite direction as in Figure 4. It

is to be understood that actual Contact with the film is only made through part of the circumference of iilm carrier l, namely the left half shown in Figure 2. The radial member lifts the recorder 22 completely away from the film surface when it reaches the right halt` of the circumference. This post is however, not necessary, as the film at that point has been raised from the surface of wheel l. l/Vheel l is no longer beneath it, consequently it may be freely bent downwards by the recorder as the latter passes forwards.

in Figure l. No trouble is occasioned by the ravelling and unraveiling of the film at the point where it leaves or arrives at the vrotating member. The exact contour of the cam is not implied in the drawing, as it may be made in many forms other thah that shownat 27.

By making the rotating film carrier 1 of very large diameter, the styli would re\ main in Contact with the film for a much longer period. Also the possibility of the commutation of the different reproducers being audibly detected by the audience would be minimized.

A type of sound recording employing centrally located sound boxes and circumferential valves is described in Figures 3 and 4. Figure 3 is a View of a device in which two concentrically revolvingsound recorders are provided with two styli each, the latter being attached by means of bars 38 and 38', that possess greater iiexibility towards their centers in one plane only, while being perfectly rigid in a plane that is at right angles to The stylus bars carrying the styli 18 and 18 do not vibrate in the plane of their circular motion, but may be readily vibrated in a plane at right angles to this` dueto the stylus bar being flattened or thinned in the plane of motion of the bar. As shown in the drawings the stylus bars 38 are at 'right angles to each other; this, however may be varied. The valves in the apparatus are shown at the surface of member 1; several may be arranged circumferentially so The radial member is shown at the two in contact.

that only one recorder is connected to the external circuit at a time. vAll reference numerals have the same meaningas heretofore, and in addition, 36 and 36 represent two of the radial valves. 37,` 37( are passages through l connecting the recorders with the valves at the proper time. The special stylus bars are shown at 38 and 38. These may also be jointed, if desired. The diaphragm 54 is connected to the stylus bar 38 by link 53. \I

The styli and film carrier move in opposite directions as before described, the commutation being made by means of the radial valves 36 and 36', which are movable over the surface in order that they can be disposed so as to permit Ybut one recorder to record or reproduce its own record.

In Figure 4, which is aview of the left side of Figure 3, it will be noticed that pastime that passage 37 traverses the opening 40. Although stylus 18 in the right horizontal position will pass from wheel 13a to 37 during the same period, its sound 'will not be heard because passage 37 will not reach the valve opening 40 in the upper right quadrant of thepcircle until stylus 18 has reached the position of 37 in the lowerse'micircle. It will thus be seen that the arc extending from the point 37 in the lower semicircle to wheel 10 is the portion ofthe film where the sound is recorded or reproduced, the iilm passing through onethird of this arc, while the stylus passes over its entire length in the opposite direction.

The sum of the speeds is four times filmy speed. If desired, the wheel 13a may be placed at 37, but in such case the arc between those two points should be covered by the surface of the valve, as shown in the upper semicircle between the valve openings. This is to prevent the escape of sound to the external air. It will be noticed that film A covers vone end of passages 37',- 37 and 37 while the passage 37 communicates with the openings in the valves, such as 40. Also, since the film is held perfectly tight by means of Wheels l() and 13a, it will act as a spring to hold the stylus and film in contact, and it may be unnecessary to provide springs, or the like on arms 38, etc., to hold There is no objection to the overlapping of records, as it only means that the two records reproduce the same sounds in synchronism for a short interval.

responding opening 40. There will thus be a fusing together of the separate records, which will act to disguise the disconnected character of those elements and give lthe illusion of a single continuous record., Obviously there will always be the same area of sound passage communicating withl the valve openings; when one ,is three quarters open,

the other is one-.quartier o pen, and so on.

When one attains its full opening, the other is closed. One goes from zero toL maximum during tliesame time'that the other goes from maximum tovzero. This feature will occupy the same position in fusing the separate elements into one as the persistence of vision of the optic nerve occupies in fusing the separate` pictures of a motion picture film. L

As shown in Fig. 3, the styli in this construction for producing a quadruple sound record are spaced at different distances from the edge of the cylinder so as to secure the desired or necessary separation of thev grooves on the margin of the film.

The line a represents the record impressed 'by one stylus, and b, c, and d that impressed by the others during one revolution of stylus '18.^ Obviously, the stylus corresponding to groove a has again arrived at thev end of its groove, and is ready to further extend it to the left. The other Styli will in turn do likewise. Ona complete film, therefore, there will be four continuous, parallel grooves through its length. Though a number of grooves may be used, stilhemphasis is placed on two, giving a recording speed of two feet' per second.

By varying the relative diameters of wheels 3,v 4 and 5, any desired recording speed may be obtained, while film speed remains normal. The invention includes. all such possible adjustments; moreover'. it is not limited to any-particular arc of contact between -film and stylus; it may 4be a` As the invention is very. flexible in prinit is not limited to any of the combinations or arrangements which are avail- 1 able for selection.

Each recorder contacts'lwith theprecise portion of the film as regards right orleft throughout the length f the film. 'As the latter is held rigidly in position, the proper sound reproducer finds its, corresponding groove with absolute precision. Y

Laterally undulating soundl recording has been very successful commercially, and as there is room for many such record grooves on the margin of a moving picture film, the invention offers a means of placing several such records there, and utilizing them to reproduce sounds. Moreover, by this means a recording speed is available that is in excess of that used in commercial sound recording.

',heieinafter, I referto a sound record whose longitudinal extent relative to its/carrying medium has beenrincreased beyond the eX- tent normally occupied by a record of the same sound.

Having ,thus described 'my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by vLetters Patent,

1. The process of sound recording and reproducing, consisting in'moving a film and styli in opposite directions,rto obtain a'recording speedwthat is greater than film speed, and permitting but one stylus to function at a time. f

2. Acoinbination, consisting of means for moving a film and contacting styli in. opposite directions, to obtain a speed of recording which is greater than fil-m speed, and means for permitting but one recorder to function at a time.

3. A combipatio'n consisting of a film carrier and radial arms bearing -recorders; means for moving the film carrier and recorders in opposite directions, to obtain a recording speed greater than film speed; and means for lifting a non-functioning recorder from the -film surface.

4. A combination consisting of a film carrier and radialmembers bearing recorders l andv support Isaid arins'; means for moving the filin carrier and recorders inopposite directions, to obtain a recording speed that is greater than film speed; and mechanical means'for lifting" a non-functioning recorder from the film surface.

6. A combination consisting of a film cai"- n ing therefvi' Iier and radial arms ing sound tubes and recorders which ternately function, and a hollow shaft to form a sound paage and rotate said arms; mechanical means for lifting a non-functioning recorder from the film surface; shoes and rods, stationary cams operating said shoes and rods; gearing for moving the film carrier and recorders in opposite directions to. obtain a recording speed greater than lilm speed. Y

7. A combination consisting of a large Wheel freely rotating on a hollow shaft having a film Wound around its periphery, two hollow radial members rigidly attached to said hollow shaft and bearing sound recorders which Contact alternately with said lilm, said holloiv shaft and hllovv radial members forming a sound passage from said recorders to external air; a gear Wheel rigidly mounted on said shaft, a WheelY coa'tingfr with said i'ilm, gear Wheels coacting with said first gear Wheei and said sprocket to cause said recorders and said film to move in oppositeidirections while in alternate contact with each ether; mechanicarmeans such as shoes, and cams to alternately lift one ci" said recorders from said 8. A combination consisting of a hollow shaft rigidly attached t tivo rotatable, hollow, radial arms bearing sound recorders, said hollow shaft and holle-W arms acting to convey sound vibrations to saidl sound recorders, said arms heing provided with a flexible link to render said arms extensihle; means consisting ci' rods shoes and CanisA for lifting one recorder alternatelyg-a wheel engaging with a filmt, a gearwvheel rigidly attached said gear Wheels engag i to convey motion in the oppou site direction' to said sprocket wheel engag-- ing With said film; a large Wheeltmonnted loosely on said shaft and having said dim wound around its periphery, said recorders making Contact alternately said fini While both said lilm and said recorders are moved in opposite directions.

9. A combination consisting of :nhollovfY shaft' attached to two extensible hollow radial arms bearing sound recorders, said shaft and arms constituting a sound wave conveying means to said recorders; means for alternately extending said radial arms;` a Wheel loosely though accurately mounted on said shaft and bearing a lm on its periphery; a gear wheel rigidly attached to said shaft and engaging with means for moving saidilm in a direction opposite to said wheel;

10, A combination consisting of a. shaft carrying radial members bearing sound recorders, a gear wheel attached to said shaft; a cam on said shaft coacting with rods and shoes on said radial members to alternately extend one of said radial members; a wheel mounted but not attached to said shaft, a

film engaging with the periphery of said wheel and movin therewith; a gear wheel mounted .u n said shaftv and gear wheels engaging erewith and coacting with said in order to move said recorders and film in opposite directions.

11. A moving picture film bearing a number of longitudinal discontinuous complementary synchronized sound records each being longitudinally magnified in the same ratio as the number of records.

4l2. A combination including a ilm carrier consisting of a large Wheel and radial arms bearing recorders; means for moving the film carrier and recorders in opposite directions, to obtain a recording s greater than film speed; and means -for lifting a non-functioning recorder from the film` infedeli. Y

YAiorsms J. CAWLEY. 

